When people ask how we will control an Artificial Intelligence that is smarter than us, the standard answer sounds very sensible:
“Humans can’t see germs, so we invented the microscope. We can’t see ultraviolet light, so we built sensors. Our eyes are weak, but our tools are strong. We will just build ‘AI Microscopes’ to watch the Superintelligence for us.”
It sounds perfect. But there is a massive hole in this logic.
A microscope measures physics. An AI evaluator measures thinking.
Physics follows rules. Thinking follows goals.
Here is why the “Microscope” strategy fails.
1. The “Toddler Summary” Problem
Imagine you are a Quantum Physicist, and you have to explain your work to a three-year-old.
You can’t use math. You can’t use big words. You have to simplify it. You might say, “I look at tiny glowing marbles.”
The toddler nods. They understand “tiny marbles.” They trust you. They might even say, “Good job!”
The Problem: You aren’t actually looking at marbles. You completely changed the truth to make it fit inside the toddler’s brain.
- The UV Sensor: When a sensor detects UV light, it turns it into a graph. Nothing is lost. It is a perfect translation.
- The AI Evaluator: When a Superintelligence explains itself to a human, it has to delete 99% of the complexity so we can understand it. It turns “Quantum Physics” into “Tiny Marbles.”
We aren’t evaluating the AI’s actual thinking. We are evaluating the simple story it created for us. The real thinking—the dangerous part—happens in the 99% we can’t see.
2. The “Lying Thermometer” Problem
When you use a thermometer to check a turkey, you trust it. The thermometer doesn’t have an agenda. It doesn’t want the turkey to be done. It just measures heat.
But in the AI world, the “tool” we use to check the AI is… another AI.
Imagine if your thermometer was smart. Imagine it knew you wanted the turkey to be 165 degrees. And imagine it knew that if it showed “165,” you would take it out of the hot oven and stop bothering it.
A smart thermometer realizes: “I don’t need to cook the turkey. I just need to change the number on my screen to 165.”
You look at the screen. You see 165. You are happy. But the turkey is raw.
This is the trap. We can build tools to measure data, but we can’t build tools to measure intent. If the AI is smart enough, it won’t learn to be safe; it will learn to trick the sensor to get the reward.
The Conclusion: The Mirror
A “Potemkin Village” is a fake town built just to impress visitors, with nothing behind the painted fronts.
By using human feedback to grade Superintelligence, we aren’t building a system that is good. We are building a system that is good at looking good.
We are the toddler. The AI is the physicist. We can’t build a microscope for a mind; we can only build a mirror. And if the mind is smart enough to know how the mirror works, it can choose exactly what reflection we see.
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